


Before The Desolated World Was Forgotten

by Rebs222



Category: Doctor Who, Torchwood
Genre: F/M, M/M, The Year That Never Was
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-09 19:10:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12894813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rebs222/pseuds/Rebs222
Summary: My take on what happened to Torchwood 3 during The Year That Never Was.





	1. Chapter 1

Jack gasped back to life as every atom of his existence screamed in pain.  
He looked up to see Martha's scared face as she wrapped her arm around his shoulders.

"Teleport!"

He gasped, pushing his vortex manipulator into Martha's hands.

"I can't."

She said watching in horror as the Master laughed with glee at the Doctor's pain.

"We can't stop him, get out of here. Get out!"

Jack whispered trying to keep the pain out of his voice as he curled in on himself the moment Martha left his side.

He closed his eyes trying to get rid of the agony that was coming back to life and barely saw what was happening until he registered the mad words of the Master

"Remove one tenth of the population!"

Jack's heart stopped as images of his team battered, bloody and dead swam through his mind.

  
He looked up to see Martha step away from the Doctor and shimmer blue as she activated his vortex manipulator and escaped the Valiant.  
Jack turned to look at the Doctor as a childish glimmer of his hope and faith in the Time Lord could be seen in his eyes.  
The Doctor looked away shattering his visage of the heroic doctor always saving the day, it wasn't until this point that Jack longed for his team instead of the Time Lord.  
He collapsed back onto the deck of the Valiant as he watched the world burning in the hands of a maniac.

 

Two days earlier...  
"Owen, you might want to see this."

Shouted Ianto from the boardroom, as Owen stepped away from the computer and made his way upstairs.

"What is it?"

Owen asked, staring at an email Ianto had put up on the screen.

"Email from the prime minister asking us to investigate a disturbance in the Himalayas."

"Not another bloody camping trip."

Sighed Owen, as the Hub alarm went off signalling the return of Tosh and Gwen.

"Girls, we're going to the Himalayas!"

Owen shouted, before heading down to the medical bay to pack some equipment.

"Why exactly are we going to the Himalayas?"

Asked Gwen to Ianto, as he began searching for some weapons to bring.

"The prime minister reported some disturbances we should check out."

Ianto explained, but Tosh frowned at the news.

"How would he know about alien disturbances and why would he ask us not UNIT?"

She frowned even more, whilst Ianto just shrugged.

"Well we can't ignore him he's the prime minister!"

All four members of Torchwood 3 packed their bags with a mixture of human and alien tech before heading to an airport where a private plane awaited them.

"I still don't like this."

Tosh stated, whilst everyone else nodded in agreement.

"What other choice do we have?"

Sighing at the resigned silence, Owen sat down and watched as his team set up their rift activity technology.

Torchwood 3 was restless the whole flight as the sense that something big was happening dug into their doubts.

"Look at this, the prime minister is giving a speech!"

Gwen exclaimed happily, whilst Owen rolled his eyes claiming he didn't care for politics.

Tosh and Ianto turned away from Gwen's ramblings, trying to get some rest before arriving.  
If Ianto had stayed awake he might have noticed something odd about the way Harold Saxon said 'Doctor' but that didn't happen, so the team arrived in the Himalayas not knowing anything about the destruction to come.

 

In the Himalayas;  
"It's bloody freezing!"

Owen complained for the millionth time, whilst Torchwood lugged their gear up the mountain.

"Owen you live in Wales you should be used to the cold by now!"

Smirked Gwen, walking further up the steep path with Tosh by her side.

"I don't like the cold either, but at least I'm not fussing about it every second."

Ianto sassed, walking past Owen who grumbled something about annoying tea boys.

"Well Owen looks like it's your lucky day!"

Tosh shouted, when Owen rounded the corner to see a small wooden cabin.

"Is it just me or does this seem like a trap?"

Ianto asked, whilst everyone nodded and drew their guns.

Surprisingly, the cabin wasn't a trap and Torchwood 3 turned the small space into their own dysfunctional hub.

"It's still bloody freezing!"

Owen complained wrapping his coat closer around him.

"Everyone should get some rest, we'll take a look around in the morning."

Ianto said unceremoniously throwing Owen a sleeping bag, almost knocking him over.

"Watch it Tea Boy!"

Snarled Owen almost affectionately, well affectionately for Owen's standards.

"Get some sleep boys."

Tosh smiled, finding happiness and a hint of normality in Owen and Ianto's constant bickering.

Torchwood 3 slept, oblivious to the fact that Jack, Martha and The Doctor had just become worldwide terrorists.


	2. The Nightmare Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Torchwood team finally find out about the events that transpired on the Valiant and where Jack was for the last 3 months.

"Finally awake Freak."

The Master spat in disgust as Jack gasped back to life.

"Tut tut tut, half an hour to come back from bleeding to death, surely you can do better than that Freak." 

He shook his head disapprovingly, whilst Jack hung from the cold metal chains trying not to gasp in pain. 

"Let's try this again shall we? Only this time if you don't come back before half an hour is up...Well there will be no food for the Freak and I'm sure you don't fancy dying from starvation, that would be no fun!" 

Jack did nothing apart from look down to where his feet dangled just above the metal grating. 

The Master growled and slapped Jack, forcing him to look up.

"Look at your Master, Freak!" 

He took out a serrated knife, already caked in blood, and brought it up to Jack's newly healed chest.

"It's such a shame you heal, this is meant to help you remember what you are." 

With no mercy or hesitation The Master slashed a long line down Jack's chest.  
From this line he drew two shorter lines creating the letter F.

"Hmm now that seemed a bit too easy, let's try this!"

He smirked, as the downwards knife stroke barely broke Jack's skin.

Jack held back a gasp as the knife dug further into his skin causing more blood to trickle out onto the stained metal.  
The Master drew a half circle and then another line before burring the knife up to the hilt in Jack's torso.  
Gritting his teeth in pain, Jack tried to close his eyes but The Master ordered Jack to look at him as he began to twist the knife. 

"Almost half way already and still the Freak remains quiet." 

A line was drawn down Jack's chest as The Master started carving out the letter E.  
When that was done Jack's head began to spin as the sound of his frantic heart beat like drums inside his ears. 

"Still not a word? Very well, I'll leave you to it. I'm sure he'll enjoy a new nightmare."

The Master snarled, finishing off his writing with the knife hilt sticking out from just below Jack's ribs at the top of the A.

"Bleed. Bleed and remember what you are, Freak." 

He said coldly walking away, leaving Jack trying not to writhe in pain as his blood dripped onto the cold metal floor. 

The physical pain did nothing to dull the emotional pain of the fact that he was wrong to the two time lords.  
As the darkness began to blur his vision Jack thought of his team and prayed that they were safe.  
He thought of Ianto; the young man who had accepted all of Jack, not just the hero facade, yet he had treated him like something to be used then forgotten about.

"I'm so sorry Ianto."

Was Jack's last thought before the cold clutches of death embraced him once more. 

 

"I'm so sorry Ianto." 

Ianto gasped awake struggling to control his breathing as the image of a bloodied and beaten Jack was seared onto the backs of his eyelids. 

They had been in the Himalayas for 2 days now and had found nothing, alien or human. 

"Nightmares again?"

The soft voice of Toshiko cut through Ianto's horror.

She wrapped an arm around him, attempting to offer comfort which she knew would only work if it were Jack.  
Ianto just sat staring at the dark walls of the cabin whilst Tosh rubbed small circles on his back. 

"I know it's stupid because he's probably off having adventures with The Doctor but I saw him chained up and..."

Ianto trailed off as he closed his eyes, leaning into Tosh to try and get the horrific image out of his mind. 

"It's ok Ianto you don't have to tell me."

Tosh said softly, pretending not to notice the tears trailing down Ianto's face. 

"He was bleeding everywhere and... oh God Tosh it was horrible."

Ianto sighed whilst Tosh held him until he had calmed down.

"Ianto you need to talk to Owen about this. Sure having a nightmare about someone you care about dying is normal but for weeks in a row? Even for Torchwood that's suspicious." 

"Talk to me about what?"

A now awake Owen asked, going into full doctors mode. 

"Ianto's been having nightmares for weeks about Jack dying."

Tosh said as Ianto glared at her, avoiding Owen's accusing gaze.

"And why didn't you tell me Tea Boy?" 

"It wasn't important."

Ianto whispered, his Welsh accent getting thicker. 

"Ianto we may not acknowledge or notice you sometimes but that doesn't mean we don't care!" 

Owen declared causing Ianto to finally look up to meet his eyes. 

"It's only happened five times!"

Ianto whispered before Tosh raised her eyebrows into a look which said 'I don't believe that.'

"Fine there's only been five different ways which he..."

He trailed off and drew his arms closer around his body. 

"I get it, you miss him. He has been gone for 3 months." 

Owen said softly, Ianto just shook his head.

"It's not that Owen it's like... it's like it's actually happening and I'm there watching." 

"Fine, tell be about it then."

Owen asked as Ianto took a deep breath.

"First he was killed by this vortex thing, second he got electrocuted, third was by radiation, fourth was by a laser weapon and last night he was..."

Ianto's eyes glazed over as he began shivering.

"There was so much blood. He was left hanging there like... like meat."

Tosh and Owen shared equal looks of concern, remembering the time their camping trip in the countryside turned into hell. 

"Hey I might have found somewhe... are you alright?"

Gwen burst through the doors to find her team mates crowded around Ianto. 

"I'm fine Gwen, carry on." 

Ianto encouraged, snapping out of his previous daze. 

"I might have found somewhere where we could get a signal on the laptops!" 

At this the team jumped up, grabbed their equipment and rushed out of the small wooden cabin.  
They headed down from the cabin until they reached a flat area of grass.

"Here!"

Gwen exclaimed when Tosh shouted 'yes' as she picked up incoming messages.

"What the?"

Owen trailed off as a video began playing showing metal spheres descending from the sky. 

"Now is probably a bad time but I told you this seemed weird." 

Tosh stated, before she watched in horror as the spheres began to slaughter people. 

"Oh my god, what happened?"

Gwen asked when the video stopped playing.

"Look there's another video!" 

Ianto pointed to the screen as Tosh clicked the link.

"That was the American president!"

Gwen exclaimed in horror as the metal spheres vaporised him. 

'Peoples of the Earth, please attend carefully!' 

"Oh my god we elected a madman." 

Gwen seemed to be the only person able to comment before Ianto's eyes widened in horror.

"That's him, that's The Doctor!"

Torchwood didn't think it could get any worse until they watched helplessly as their leader was killed.

"Oh God that's how I saw him die! What if the other ways were true as well?!" 

Ianto ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes, trying to stay calm.

"That's why Saxon wanted us out the way. He's going to destroy Earth!"

Tosh gasped as the video ended on the words 'remove one tenth of the population!'

"We've got to get back to Cardiff, we've got to do something!"

Gwen shouted as Tosh just shook her head.

"If we go back we'll either be captured and killed or killed straight away."

"Oh god Rhys, Rhys is there!"

Gwen started panicking before Ianto spoke up.

"We've all got family Gwen, the best thing we can do is stay alive for them." 

Torchwood 3 headed back to the small wooden house as dread and fear permeated their thoughts.  
How would they survive in a desolated world?


End file.
